Kia Ora

We started the month with Jaz trying to do serious injury to Peter by tripping him up in the garage. We think one of his toes was actually broken and his foot was black and blue for a couple of weeks.

When Ann was tidying up the courgette plant she pulled off a very large and over grown courgette and put it on one side to add to the compost bins. The next time she saw the courgette it was on the other side of the garden under a maple tree! Answer – Maxie had snuck off with it hoping for a snack but then deciding it didn’t taste too good!

Ann’s abscess still hasn't fully disappeared – small lump still under left side of her jaw, and she still has a bit of pain and difficulty opening her mouth fully.

It was a rainy start to the year, we've only had about 10 days without rain - talk about English summers, there was even flooding and landslips in parts of the country. And down on South Island, around Queenstown they've even had snow - in summer!!!

We had a few more things break. One of the mower blades snapped in half whilst Peter was mowing the paddock. It flew about 10m - good thing Ann and the dogs were at the other end of the garden. We've also had the repair man out to fix the satellite dish and install a new aerial for when the TV transmissions all change to digital later this year.
	Peter started on the new firewood store using some of the roofing iron we got from our neighbour.
Ann is very impressed with his handywork skills!

Because of Ann's tooth problem we put off going out for a meal to celebrate the 7th anniversary of our arrival in NZ, We'll be going out early February instead (hopefully).

The strawberries haven't produced as heavy a crop as last year but Ann dug up a few spuds - 40kg from the one bed. As we've managed to dig these up early we should be able to plant another crop before winter. The pumpkin is growing well and Ann harvested our first one whilst weeding (yes - that is ONE plant).
	Annual photo of the Acacia tree. We planted this tree as a one year old sapling five years ago. It's growing well, isn't it!

Ann sadly went back to work on the last day of the month. Peter had no sympathy for her as he’d already been back at work for three weeks and had even had to go in one Saturday for 10 hours to work on a big project.

The girls had a visitor one Friday. Ann's friend Karyn came for morning tea and brought her dog Poppy, who's only 7 months old, with her. Maxie had the time of her life chasing her new friend, but Jaz was nervous of the rugrat and hid on the sofa behind Ann for most of the visit. To get this photo we had to bribe all three girls with treats!

We've had to reinforce more of the fence. This time it was Maxie escaping - to next door! Having not heard her for 10-15 minutes Ann went looking - and found her sitting quietly up against the fence on the neighbours side. She'd pushed through under the chicken wire - and couldn't get back - silly girl!

News from Home

Dave and JD have set up a new guitar business producing custom built guitars. Check out their new website here